Rupe checked his messages when he returned to the station later that night and was pleased to hear Abbie’s voice, but disappointed when she said she’d be away tomorrow. He’d been hoping he’d get to meet the daughter. Good news about Rita, however, confirming the sighting of her in the blue ute.
No need for a trip out there.
He’d be able to call Abbie tomorrow while she was out, and tell her about the phone company. Maybe invite them both for dinner in the pub. Learning more about Abbie had become surprisingly desirable.
The dead possum popped into his mind as he was brushing his teeth. No-one else had reported anything remotely similar in this recent spate of vandalism and prowling despite what the sergeant had said. How many .22 rifles were registered in the area? Fifty? A hundred? More?
When he checked on the database, there were thirty-two in the diameter he’d predetermined. Rita was on the list.
Perhaps he should take a drive out there tomorrow after all.
***
‘The dog needs feeding and a run around,’ said Abbie.
‘It can wait.’ Aaron barely glanced her way.
‘Kaelee, it’s cruel to leave her tied up and unfed.’ Abbie addressed her directly, ignoring Aaron. He was most likely the possum shooter—the budding serial killer. Didn’t they practise on animals first? Perfecting their technique. She swallowed the rising panic, kept her eyes firmly on Kaelee. ‘She isn’t part of this.’
‘Where’s her food.’ Kaelee rose to her feet.
‘I don’t know why you’re bothering.’ Aaron sighed and drank more wine.
‘I like dogs.’
‘The cans are in the cupboard on the bottom shelf. Thank you.’ Abbie sent her a tiny smile but Kaelee ignored her, opened the can, took a spoon and disappeared down the hallway. The front door opened and closed. Silence.
Aaron got up and looked in the pot on the stove.
‘Smells good.’
‘If it looks dry, add some water,’ Abbie said.
‘She’s lying, you know. She doesn’t like dogs.’
‘Why would she say she does?’
He shrugged. ‘Why not?’
‘Her family had a dog when she was a kid,’ said Georgia.
‘She got rid of it. Didn’t you know?’
Abbie turned to Georgia. ‘Did you?’
‘No idea. What did she do to it?’ Georgia glared at Aaron.
‘She said she got rid of it. Maybe she gave it poison. A poison bait. That happens.’ He smiled at Abbie. ‘Doesn’t it? Poisoned food.’
‘Do you like animals?’ asked Georgia.
He turned and studied her. ‘I think you both need a haircut.’
‘A haircut?’ Georgia sent Abbie a startled look.
‘Where are the scissors? I saw them somewhere.’ He began opening and closing drawers. ‘I guess I can always use a knife.’
Kaelee came back in and dumped the empty can in the bin.
‘They need a haircut,’ he said, holding up the scissors he’d finally found.
Kaelee laughed. ‘Good idea. Bags I do Georgia’s.’
‘Go for it.’
She took the scissors and snapped them open and closed a few times. ‘Make sure you stay still, I don’t want to cut you.’ She tilted her head. ‘Well—I don’t care whether I do or not, but let’s just say I don’t want to cut you yet.’
‘Oh for god’s sake,’ muttered Georgia.
‘Tape.’ Kaelee’s mouth twisted with distaste. ‘I can’t listen to her anymore.’
‘Tape.’ Aaron nodded. He slid the roll of gaffer tape across the table towards her. She snipped off a piece and jammed it roughly over Georgia’s mouth.
‘That’s better, don’t you agree, Abbie? You must have got sick of her going on all the time too. Opinionated cow that she was. Didn’t you just want to tape her mouth shut?’
Fortunately it was a rhetorical question because Kaelee didn’t wait for an answer, she picked up the scissors and hacked off a chunk of Georgia’s hair.
‘You must have paid a lot to have your hair done this way. Pity to waste all that money, but it can’t be helped, you would insist on being a big-mouthed bitch, even after I told you not to.’
She punctuated her words with vicious chops of the scissors. Clumps of hair piled in drifts on Georgia’s shoulders and lap. She brushed it roughly aside so it fell around her feet in dark swathes.
Judging by the fury in Georgia’s eyes, it was just as well she couldn’t speak. Kaelee wielding scissors could get very nasty very quickly. Hair would grow back, scars were permanent. So was death. Abbie bit at her lip. Would she go that far or was this to be only humiliation and punishment—vengeance for her unhappy schooldays?
But she’d said no, this was a bonus. What the hell did they want?
Kaelee continued cutting, pulling and snipping at Georgia’s hair until all that remained were a few rough tufts on a pale scalp. Georgia’s eyes were wide above the black tape on the lower half of her face. Fury boiled within.
‘Next,’ she said and smiled at Abbie. With a quick movement, she grabbed Abbie’s ponytail and snipped it off, holding it like a trophy for a moment before tossing it to the floor.
‘Hey, I wanted to do hers,’ said Aaron.
‘Okay.’ Kaelee handed him the scissors.
Abbie clenched her jaw and closed her eyes. Hair fell onto her cheeks and tickled her nose but she couldn’t brush it aside and didn’t dare move her head with Aaron so close. He stopped and stepped away. Abbie opened her eyes and tried to blow the prickly bits from her cheeks. No hair made her head cold. What on earth did she look like?
‘Big improvement,’ said Kaelee. ‘But I don’t want to eat dinner with them sitting there staring at us. Where shall we put them?’
‘Bedrooms?’
‘They might try to escape.’
‘I don’t see how but we’d better put them somewhere we can see them.’
‘I need the toilet,’ said Abbie.
Kaelee sighed. ‘Oh for god’s sake, why didn’t you say so before?’
‘Take her to the bathroom,’ said Aaron. ‘Just untie her feet. You can pull her jeans down for her.’
‘Like a little kid.’ Kaelee giggled. ‘Or a geriatric.’
She picked up the scissors, squatted down and snipped the tape holding Abbie’s legs to the chair. Abbie tried to stand but her taped-together wrists caught on the back of the chair, making it impossible. Kaelee hesitated then cut them free.
‘I’ll come too.’ Aaron took the gun from the table. ‘Don’t be silly, Abbie.’
With a shotgun held mere centimetres from her body, he must be joking. But his expression said he wasn’t. What chance would she have of knocking the barrel away and attacking him? Not much. She’d never taken any self-defence classes. Kaelee was there as backup and they were both hyped-up and on edge.
He wouldn’t let her close the door. He stood watching while she peed but Kaelee went to the bathroom and washed her hands.
Back in the kitchen, Aaron moved Abbie’s chair to the studio end of the room and Kaelee replaced the tape. Any chance of breaking free was gone. Georgia’s intense expression implied she should have tried, but she wasn’t Georgia and she wasn’t risking their lives in a doomed attempt.
Aaron wandered about, staring at the paintings.
‘I’ve gone right off your work,’ he said and went back to the kitchen to return moments later with the scissors.
Abbie held her breath, biting down on the furious words pressure cooking in her mind. Protesting would be useless, arguing would make him crazier.
He raised his hand and stabbed the blade into the large canvas she’d been working on—the dark tree with the translucent light in the background. She stifled a cry. He looked over his shoulder at her with a grin. And struck again, ripping and tearing at the surface until painted fabric hung down in dismal strips.
‘Now, what else?’ he murmured. His gaze fell on the stack of pictures she was sending to Louise. ‘Mmm. Watercolours. Derivative and trite.’
He knocked the pile off the workbench and proceeded to stamp on them, breaking the frames and tearing the paper until they were nothing but kindling. Tears trickled down Abbie’s cheeks but she clamped her mouth shut and closed her eyes. A crash popped them open. He’d dumped her supply of paints on the floor and was cheerfully grinding the tubes into the matting. A kaleidoscope of colour squelched out under his feet. Then came her brushes. Handles broken, bristles jammed into the floor. He worked his way through her supplies and destroyed everything.
‘You need a drink after that,’ Kaelee called.
‘Is dinner ready yet?’
‘I’m not sure. Is it, Abbie?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said hoarsely. ‘Maybe.’ The smell was enticing but she wouldn’t be able to swallow a mouthful without gagging. Especially after the conversation about poisoned bait.
He left her sitting in the debris and joined Kaelee.
Abbie forced herself to look at the destruction. All the canvases were ruined beyond repair, as were the watercolours. Her brushes and paints were destroyed along with all the other bits and pieces she’d amassed over the years. He’d done a methodical and deliberate wrecking job and enjoyed himself. Not only that, he’d enjoyed having her as an audience. Is this what he’d come here for? To destroy her work? Had she offended him in some way apart from asking him to leave the other day? Was it something from his past that she’d been a party to and had completely forgotten? Impossible. She didn’t teach or do critiques or sit on panels or do reviews or examine students. She’d neither seen nor heard of this boy before in her life until Kaelee turned up with him.
Georgia was staring across the room at her, sympathy in her expression, frustrated anger in her tense shoulders and creased brow.
How were she and Georgia going to get away before this escalated into something else? They’d have to go together, that was a given. How long did they have before this pair got tired of fooling around tormenting them and moved onto what they’d really come for?
Kaelee said this was just a fun bonus, so what was the real goal? Murder? Did they even know themselves?
A plan seemed unlikely, although the earlier visit now appeared to be reconnaissance—checking how close her neighbours were, if she had a car, was a shot likely to be heard. Or a scream.
Outside help was unlikely. Rita’s visits were sporadic and quite random and she may not be up to a trek next door if she’d been ill, even if she was out of bed. Rupe thought she and Georgia would be away most of tomorrow. She couldn’t expect a police rescue.
The only slim hope would be if Tim or Connie dropped in to see how Jet was getting on. Jet. What if she got away and went home? Would that alert them? Too late now. Kaelee wouldn’t go out again. She may have let Jet off her lead, but because food was on offer she didn’t leave. And if Aaron had shot a dead possum, he might not hesitate to shoot a chained-up dog.
She looked at the pair of them fiddling about in her kitchen, making themselves at home, preparing to eat the dinner she’d been looking forward to eating with Georgia. Anger began to build, and with it a determination to free herself and her daughter and force these two out of her house. The problem was, apart from being restrained, how to go about it. Violence wasn’t going to work yet, the psychological approach might. Separate them, set them against each other.
Who exactly was in charge in this relationship? According to him, Kaelee had killed the family pet but according to her he’d doctored the meal that made Abbie sick. She’d surrendered the gun to him without a word but she was the one with the grudge against Georgia. She’d also said they hadn’t arrived at the main reason for the attack. So what the hell was that? All her thought trails led back to the same unanswered question.
Abbie shifted on the chair. The wooden seat was hard and her shoulders were fast growing sore with her arms stretched back and down. Kaelee had pulled tighter when she redid the tape after the toilet break and now her hands were going numb.
‘Kaelee, would you mind loosening the tape on my wrists a bit? I think the circulation’s cut off.’
Kaelee paused in taking plates from the shelf. ‘That’s unfortunate, isn’t it?’
‘Maybe she needs tape on her mouth, too,’ said Aaron. ‘Would you like that, Abbie?’
‘No.’
‘Well, shut the fuck up.’ Kaelee dropped the two plates on the floor. ‘Oh dear, look what I’ve done.’
Abbie kept her expression blank. Plates weren’t important.
‘Plenty more where they came from,’ said Aaron. ‘But don’t break too many or we won’t have anything to eat off.’
Kaelee used her foot to shove the broken pieces out of her way and took two more plates from the shelf, this time depositing them safely on the bench.
‘Let’s eat.’
While Kaelee served the chicken and vegetables, Aaron opened the second bottle of wine. The more they drank the sounder they’d sleep tonight, if sleep was what they had in mind. Even if they didn’t, after downing two bottles of wine their movements and reactions would slow and become clumsy.
Abbie twisted her hands, trying to change the pressure on her wrists, but succeeded in tightening the bond instead. No way could she break that tape. It would need to be cut or rubbed against something abrasive but she wasn’t close enough to anything, and neither was Georgia. Freeing her legs would give her a chance of getting to the workbench and finding something useful. He’d missed a palette knife in his rampage of destruction. It had dropped to the floor when he hurled the watercolours off the bench and stomped on them. With a wide, flat, rounded edge, it wasn’t sharp but it might be better than nothing.
She tried moving each leg, feeling for give. The left ankle had more leeway. The tape hadn’t stuck as firmly to her jeans as it had to the skin on her wrists. She began wriggling her ankle surreptitiously, twisting her foot, working on loosening the grip bit by bit.
Kaelee and Aaron sat at the table wolfing down their meal.
‘I can’t eat with her staring at me,’ said Kaelee after a few moments.
‘Help me move her.’ Aaron got up and walked across to Georgia’s chair. He tipped her backward and began dragging her. The chair legs screeched against the tiles but luckily didn’t collapse as Abbie suspected they might. Kaelee grabbed one side and together they pulled Georgia over to Abbie and left her with her back to the kitchen.
‘Much better,’ Kaelee said.
Aaron flicked the studio light off and they went back to the table.
In the gloom of the darkened room Abbie strove to make out Georgia’s expression. Her scalp shone pale through the ragged, patchy clumps of hair left by Kaelee’s scissors. Her own head would look similar but she didn’t care about the hair and doubted Georgia would either. As a means of humiliation it was petty, as was breaking crockery. Like little kids running about unsupervised, trying to think of naughty things to do.
She mouthed, ‘Are you okay?’
Georgia nodded. Abbie smiled what she hoped was reassurance. She looked down and wiggled her left foot, trying to indicate what she was doing. Another nod but this time she shrugged her right shoulder and tilted her head to the same side. Abbie frowned and she did it again, but rolled her shoulder forward and back. Maybe her right hand was looser. If one hand was free, both would be. The trouble was her back was to the kitchen so her arms were visible to their captors. The kitchen light didn’t reach to the studio end of the large room but enough would spill onto Georgia to make any movement obvious.
‘Be careful,’ she mouthed.
Georgia rolled her eyes and Abbie almost laughed with relief and a flood of love for her feisty daughter, mixed with renewed determination to free them both. And her unborn grandchild. Even more of an incentive.
Kaelee and Aaron sat at the table for ages. They finished the chicken then Kaelee searched the fridge for dessert, coming up with the ice cream and a tin of apricot halves. The level in the second wine bottle dropped steadily but neither showed any signs of falling asleep.
It was dark outside now but Abbie couldn’t see the clock from where she sat. It couldn’t be much after about nine. Her bottom was numb and she’d lost feeling in her hands. She tried rotating her wrists and flexing her fingers, managing a tiny release of pressure. If she didn’t get some relief soon, who knew what would happen to her hands.
‘Kaelee, could I go to the toilet, please? And Georgia?’
‘Again?’
‘Sorry. I really do need to.’
Aaron muttered something to Kaelee and they both continued eating. Should she ask again or wait? Wait. If she annoyed them they’d refuse, and she didn’t want that. She wanted the circulation restored to her hands.
A brisk wind had started up outside, making the old wooden house creak and groan. Her bedroom door banged shut as it always did in the wind when her bedroom window was open.
Kaelee got up and shut the back door. ‘Looks like it might rain,’ she said as she sat back down.
About ten minutes later, Aaron stood up and casually retrieved the shotgun from where it lay on the bench. Kaelee picked up the scissors and together they walked across to Georgia.
‘If I take the tape off, will you keep quiet?’ Aaron asked.
Georgia nodded. Kaelee ripped it from her mouth. Abbie grimaced. Georgia gasped but didn’t speak. She ran her tongue over her lips and drew in deep breaths as Kaelee cut the tape around her ankles and wrists. She stumbled a little when she finally stood up but Kaelee said, ‘Don’t try anything stupid or Aaron will blow a hole in you. Okay?’
Georgia rubbed her wrists but didn’t reply.
‘Go,’ said Aaron.
The trio moved into the hallway. Abbie waited, straining her ears for any talk but heard only the thud of feet and then the sound of the toilet flushing, followed by water in the basin. Odd that they allowed hand washing. Did that mean they weren’t out to kill? Or was it ingrained hygiene?
Was there anything in the bathroom she could use as a weapon when it was her turn? She could throw the potted fern at Aaron but it wouldn’t be easy and she’d be on her own with two of them to contend with even if she knocked the gun from his hands. Her only hope would be getting hold of it herself. And if she failed …
The trio returned.
‘We should lock them in somewhere,’ said Aaron.
‘Where? The bedrooms don’t have locks. What’s wrong with leaving them where they are?’
He shrugged. ‘Nothing. Sit,’ he said to Georgia. She cast a look at Abbie but did as she was told. No doubt she’d been assessing the bathroom for weapons too.
‘Could you please leave our hands in front?’ asked Abbie.
‘No.’
Kaelee released Abbie’s hands and feet. Unbearable pins and needles made her wince and rub ineffectually at her wrists to help the blood flow faster. She eased her shoulders up and down to release the cramping pain. Sitting all night in that position would be crippling.
Aaron followed her but kept several paces away. Until her stiff joints loosened up, any attempt to attack him would be a dismal failure. She’d probably fall over first. As before, he left the toilet door open then stepped back to allow her access to the bathroom. Kaelee leaned against the wall with her arms folded, watching.
Abbie splashed water onto her face and drank thirstily from her cupped hands. Had Georgia done the same? She hoped so.
‘Get a move on,’ said Aaron.
Abbie cast a quick glance at the fern. Too far away to grab quickly. He’d blast a hole in her before she took two steps. What if she elbowed him in the ribs as she went past, or stamped on his foot? Or grabbed the gun barrel. But Kaelee was right there and no way could Abbie fight off the pair of them. She was no fighter and even if she was, that gun was the decider. The police always advised people not to try to tackle an intruder or a robber with a gun. People did though. Georgia was probably one of those who’d give it a go and end up shot.
‘Hurry up,’ said Kaelee.
Abbie turned and went back to her chair. This time the tape was looser, giving her a little more leeway to move her hands.
‘Are we staying here all night?’ she asked quietly as Kaelee straightened after taping her ankles to the chair legs.
Kaelee threw a quick glance at Aaron but he’d turned away towards the kitchen.
‘Kaelee? You don’t have to do this. If Aaron’s forcing you, we can help you if you let us go.’
‘Let you go?’ Her eyes widened and she laughed. ‘Why on earth would I do that? Having Georgia tied up and helpless is one of the greatest pleasures of my life.’ She looked at Georgia and snarled, ‘You bitch, you nasty fucking bitch. You’ve no idea how much I’ve dreamed of a day like this. You sitting there all helpless and scared, wondering what nightmare is going to happen next. That’s how I felt every day at school. It’s no fun, is it?’
Shock barrelled through Abbie like a tidal wave. Had Georgia really been the school bully? Surely, as her mother, she would have been told by other parents, if not the school. That sort of thing was stamped on hard at Georgia’s school. Or so she’d assumed.
‘I’m so sorry you feel that but I truly don’t understand where this is coming from,’ she said.
‘How would you know? You didn’t have a clue what was going on in your own house, let alone the school.’
Abbie bit her lip. She was right. Abbie had no idea what her husband had been up to. Was Kaelee right about Georgia as well? There must have been serious emotional damage done for her to be still nursing this pain years after finishing school.
‘Why didn’t your parents move you to another school?’ she asked.
‘My father said I had to toughen up.’
‘What about your mother?’
‘She did what my father said. We all did.’
‘And the school? What did they say?’
‘Nothing. They didn’t believe me.’
‘No-one ever said anything to me or the others about bullying you,’ said Georgia.
‘That’s because your type always gets away with everything.’
‘Or because we didn’t do anything.’
‘If Kaelee feels that way then something happened,’ Abbie said.
‘Stop talking to them,’ Aaron called, ‘Come and have some more wine.’
Kaelee hurried across to him.
‘Why the hell are you sticking up for that looney?’ Georgia whispered.
‘Because they’re both looney and who knows what they’ll do if we upset them.’
Georgia frowned. ‘I suppose.’
‘This could get way out of hand really fast,’
‘More out of hand, you mean.’
‘I mean dangerous. At the moment they’re not sure what they’re doing so given he’s got that gun, we don’t want it to step up a level. We don’t want them to panic.’
‘Better hope that cop friend of yours doesn’t turn up. They might shoot him.’
‘That’s what I mean, but he won’t. He thinks we’re going to Wagga for the day tomorrow.’
‘Bugger!’
‘Indeed.’
Rain began in a sudden staccato burst of sound on the roof. It was so loud she and Georgia could talk in near normal voices.
‘So. We can’t rely on being rescued, Mum, we have to get out of here ourselves.’
‘Yes. Got any good ideas?’
‘Maybe. But we can’t do anything with them sitting there.’
‘I wonder if they’ll go to bed.’
‘If they drink enough they might pass out.’
‘Is there any more wine?’
‘One more bottle, I think, and some gin.’
‘I didn’t know you drank so much.’
‘I don’t, that’s why it’s there. There are vineyards around here, remember? People gave it to me.’
‘Sure.’ But she was smiling.
With the rain still thundering down, a few minutes later, Abbie said, ‘I reckon we could break these chairs if we tried, but they have to go to sleep first.’
‘Or at least go into the bedroom.’
‘If they sleep in my bed I’ll have to burn it.’
‘I hope you get the chance,’ Georgia said grimly. ‘We don’t even know what they want.’
‘Maybe they’re coming to tell us now. Ssh.’
Aaron and Kaelee, both with glass in hand and Aaron holding the bottle, kicked art debris out of the way and came to lean against the workbench.
‘I suppose you’re wondering why we’re here,’ said Aaron. ‘I would be.’ He giggled and Kaelee snickered.
‘Abbie,’ he said. ‘I really can’t believe you had no idea what your ever-loving husband was up to for all those years. How is that remotely possible?’
‘I didn’t know.’ Something inside Abbie’s stomach sagged, like a bridge collapse. What was happening now?
‘Impossible.’
‘It’s not impossible,’ said Georgia. ‘Neither of us had any idea. Why would we?’
‘Because your father raped me,’ screamed Kaelee. ‘Right in your own house while you were watching a movie on TV.’
‘What? When?’ cried Abbie. ‘Why didn’t you tell me? Us? Your parents?’
‘You know when—you walked right past the door and you did nothing.’
‘I don’t remember that at all.’
‘When was this?’ Georgia demanded.
‘Year eleven. The October holidays. You had a sleepover but you were all teasing me and your father was nice to me and said I should come with him to his study to calm down and get away from you for a bit.’ Her lip curled as tears began streaming down her face. ‘He was nice to me and then he raped me when I thought he was being kind.’
‘But you’d gone home. You said you were going home,’ said Georgia. ‘We thought you’d left.’
‘I hadn’t gone home.’ She glared at Abbie. ‘And you knew I hadn’t.’
Abbie stared back in horror, trying feverishly to remember that sleepover, that evening. October? The girls giggling and laughing in the rumpus room watching some movie, eating popcorn. They were sixteen and seventeen, old enough to take care of themselves in that situation, not wanting parental interference. Except Kaelee wasn’t.
‘I saw you coming up the stairs from the rumpus room. You said you were going home but not why. I asked if you needed a ride and you said no. I thought you left.’
‘I was going to until your husband …’
‘Kaelee, I’m so, so sorry.’
‘Too late. You had your chance and you chose to ignore what was happening. You knew I was in that study with him. You knew what he was doing.’
‘I didn’t. Why do you think that?’
‘You knocked on his door and said you were going out—he said okay, because he was busy with me,’ she snarled. ‘I called out but you went away.’
‘I didn’t hear you. If I’d had any idea I would have been straight in there.’ Where had she gone that evening? Book group? Most likely. And left that monster alone in the house with a group of teenage girls.
‘Don’t believe you.’ Kaelee dragged in air and tilted her head back, looking away. ‘You didn’t want to know.’